Chicago, IL (October 6, 2015) – Comcast SportsNet, the television home for the most games and the most comprehensive coverage of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks, will be providing fans with TWO, hour-long pre-game specials in advance of the team’s 2015 Stanley Cup Championship Banner Raising Ceremony and home/season opener against the New York Rangers TOMORROW (Wednesday, October 7).

Beginning at 5:00 PM, Blackhawks fans can look forward to the team’s annual Opening Night Red Carpet Event, featuring introductions of Blackhawks players, coaches, and alumni, as they head into the United Center to prepare for the season opener. Comcast SportsNet’s coverage of the Red Carpet Event will be hosted by Blackhawks Pre/Postgame Live’sPat Boyle and Steve Konroyd, along with Blackhawks Community Liaison Jamal Mayers, who will be interviewing players on the red carpet about the upcoming night’s festivities and game, along with details on their fashion choices for the evening.

Immediately following Comcast SportsNet’s coverage of the Red Carpet Event, fans can look forward to a one-hour, special United Center edition of Chevy Blackhawks Pregame Live at 6:00 PM. The pregame show (to be hosted by Boyle/Konroyd/Mayers) will also feature the latest team and player news from Blackhawks beat reporter Luke Stuckmeyer and CSNChicago.com Blackhawks “Insider” Tracey Myers. The one-hour pregame show will also include taped interviews with Blackhawks players, a recap of the 2015 Stanley Cup Championship season, a detailed look at all the new Blackhawks team members, along with a full preview of the upcoming NHL season.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Both the Red Carpet Event at 5:00 PM and Chevy Blackhawks Pregame Live at 6:00 PM will air exclusively on CSN+. CSN+ is available in high-definition on Comcast/Xfinity ch. 201 in the Chicago area/South Bend, IN & on Comcast/Xfinity ch. 285 in the Peoria, Springfield, Rockford and Champaign markets, along with being made available in DIRECTV, DISH Network, AT&T U-verse, RCN, and WOW! homes among others; viewers are urged to visit CSNChicago.com’s CHANNEL FINDERfor complete channel location details.

In addition, the Red Carpet Event and Chevy Blackhawks Pregame Live will also be streamed live on CSNChicago.com and will be made available via the NBC Sports Live Extra app on tablets and smart phones. Authenticated Comcast SportsNet Chicago subscribers who reside within Comcast SportsNet Chicago’s regional viewing territory will have the ability to watch both shows live. The live streaming service is currently available to customers of Comcast/Xfinity, DIRECTV, DISH Network, AT&T U-verse, Mediacom, RCN, WOW!, Time Warner Cable and Charter among numerous other carriers. For a full list of carriers and more information about CSN Chicago’s live streaming service of Bulls games, viewers are urged to visit the following link: csnchicago.com/page/live-extra-faq.

On Thursday, October 8 at 2:00 PM, Comcast SportsNet will re-air the “NHL on NBC” telecast Blackhawks vs. Rangers opening night telecast, including the 2015 Stanley Cup Championship banner raising ceremony. Comcast SportsNet’s first regular season telecast of the 2015-16 NHL campaign will take place on Friday, October 9 (beginning at 6:00 PM with Chevy Blackhawks Pregame Live)as the Blackhawks travel to face the New York Islanders in their new home, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Comcast SportsNet’s Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk will have the face-off call at 6:30 PM, which will be followed by Blackhawks Postgame Live presented by HawkAuto.com (approx. 9:00 PM).

Bastian Schweinsteiger finally sees the field in Fire preseason

USA TODAY

Bastian Schweinsteiger finally sees the field in Fire preseason

Coach Veljko Paunovic still went with a second-choice lineup to start the Fire's preseason match against USL expansion team Nashville SC on Wednesday, but the second half featured the first preseason action for Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Schweinsteiger came on for the second half, along with Nemanja Nikolic, Johan Kappelhof and a few other Fire regulars. The German sat out the first four preseason games, but looked sharp in his 45 minutes.

Schweinsteiger also had an impressive switch pass to set up a shot for second-round pick Diego Campos in the final minutes of the game. Campos drilled the shot on target, but was unable to beat the goalkeeper.

The team did not say Schweinsteiger was injured despite the repeated absences in matches. The Fire have dealt with injuries to Matt Polster, Luis Solignac, Daniel Johnson and rookie Grant Lillard this preseason. None of those four, along with Dax McCarty, played in the 0-0 draw.

The Fire next play Saturday at Orlando in a final match in Florida before returning to Chicago. The Fire also play Tulsa, the team's USL affiliate, at Toyota Park on March 3 before taking on Sporting Kansas City in the season opener on March 10.

There are 600,000 reasons you won't hear Gar, Pax or Hoiberg discuss losing

There are 600,000 reasons you won't hear Gar, Pax or Hoiberg discuss losing

The Bulls made headlines on Tuesday when VP John Paxson announced that David Nwaba, Cristiano Felicio and Cameron Payne would be entering the rotation, thus continuing the youth movement in Chicago.

On the surface the moves make sense. The 24-year-old Nwaba, the 25-year-old Felicio and the 23-year-old Cameron Payne will be replacing 28-year-old Justin Holiday, 29-year-old Robin Lopez and 25-year-old Jerian Grant. The Bulls want to see what they have in these younger players who haven't played much; they already know what they have in Lopez and Holiday, and Grant (like the other two) is under contract through next year.

OK, got that? Here's why they're making the move: they're sitting 8th in the NBA Lottery standings and really want to move into the top-5 to give themselves a chance at what should be a loaded front-end of the draft class. It's pretty obvious, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either named Gar Forman, John Paxson or Fred Hoiberg.

And here's why: On Wednesday Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined a whopping $600,000 by the NBA for comments he made on a podcast regarding tanking. The Mavericks are currently 18-40, the third worst record in the NBA. This comes a season after they finished 33-49, netting them the No. 9 pick that turned into talented point guard Dennis Smith Jr.

So when Cuban was asked about the best interests of his Dallas team, which touts young talent but clearly isn't headed for the postseason in 2018, he said this on the House Call with Dr. J Podcast:

"I'm probably not supposed to say this, but, like, I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night, and here we are, you know, we weren't competing for the playoffs. I was like, 'Look, losing is our best option. [Commissioner] Adam [Silver] would hate hearing that, but I at least sat down and I explained it to them. And I explained what our plans were going to be this summer, that we're not going to tank again. This was, like, a year-and-a-half tanking, and that was too brutal for me. But being transparent, I think that's the key to being kind of a players owner and having stability."

Cuban isn't wrong, and the Mavericks sure as hell aren't the only team tanking. But to come right now and admit that losing is the team's best option wasn't, as Cuban predicted, going to sit well with the league office.

Commissioner Adam Silver sent out a memo with the fine that said Cuban's comments "which concerned his perspective on the team's competitive success this season" were "detrimental to the NBA."

So while the Bulls are going about their business in trying to lose as many games down the stretch as possible, don't expect anyone to admit it's the reason behind their personnel moves. There are 600,000 reasons why.